


you hit me like a vision.

by paleromantic



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: First Meetings, Luke I love you I really hope you like this, M/M, Marine Biologist! Andrew Minyard, Okay so maybe I need to stop writing Selkie AU's but will I? Not likely, Selkie!Neil, This isn't connected to my big bang at all but yknow Selkies are cool, selkie!au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-01 23:41:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19187605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paleromantic/pseuds/paleromantic
Summary: Andrew opened his mouth, closed it again. “Uh, who the fuck are you?”The man blinked, and underneath him in the water Andrew swore that he saw something moving, a quick swish under the water every once in a while. He had auburn hair like red that had cooled in the pale spring sunshine to a duller brown, and when the sun caught it it turned to copper. “You can call me Neil if you’d like, I live around here.”





	you hit me like a vision.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mittamoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mittamoo/gifts).



> Hey y'all!!! This is part of a gift exchange me and my friends are doing, so hi Luke ily and I really hope you like this! Hopefully it has enough seal content for you,,,,

Andrew loved the smell of sea spray, the way it burned his lungs slightly as he breathed in. It was fortunate really, his love of the ocean, since he was a marine biology student at the local university and as such had to spend a lot of time in or beside the ocean. Still though, there were times when Andrew found himself happy to do his work, eager to go down to the shore, and there were other times that he didn’t.

This was one of the latter times, for sure.

“Oh for fuck sake.” He huffed and then shook out the leg that had started to cramp under him, before crouching again and balancing his notebook on his thigh. His writing looked like chicken scratch due to the weird angle, but that didn’t matter- he’d be typing it all up anyways so it hardly mattered what his actual notes looked like. If there was one thing that being brothers with Aaron had taught him it was that one didn’t need good handwriting to pass a class. Aaron seemed to be doing just fine with the looping scrawl he called a handwriting style. He wrote down another line before flipping it shut and taking out the waterproof camera he had taken from the lecturer’s set, holding it tight as he changed his posture. His body protested the movement, but Andrew ignored it and scanned the landscape.

It wasn’t the most exciting work, he supposed, following the seal patterns on the local beach. It was the work that his project centred around though, so it wasn’t as if he had much room to complain about it as he returned day after day to monitor the number of seals that frequented the area, and to note their behaviour while they were there. Of course, it was more peaceful when his cousin and brother didn’t insist on coming with him- Aaron and Nicky always felt the need to fill the silence with them talking about their significant others, or their classes, or other aspects of their life that Andrew honestly heard about much too often already. Not that he didn’t care- he didn’t care a _lot_ but he did _care-_ he was just tired, and wanted to finish the fucking project already. He had already left it for much longer than he should have and the deadline was approaching much faster that he would have liked.

He leaned forward and brought the camera up to his eye, snapping a couple of pictures of some seals clustered together on the sand, down by the water. They were just filler pictures really, to pad out his project and not make it look like he hadn’t gone to the beach at all. His professor knew that he was prone to just staying in his room and doing nothing, so Andrew had to prove that he had actually gone outside and _completed_ the fucking thing. Andrew had never been one to balk at a challenge, so here he was to ace the damn project and show the teacher that he deserved that distinction. The seals were lazing about in what little sun there was, their bodies huddled together to keep themselves safe from any predators that might chance their luck at them. Andrew could understand that, at least- staying close, not letting anything in was an instinct of his that he had yet to shake.

Leave it to him to project his own problems onto other things, he supposed. His therapist would have a field day with it. That was a lie- Betsy never tended to take his problems and run with them, instead forcing Andrew to face his own problems like an adult and handle them in an emotionally mature way. She was the _worst_.

The floor of the old cave he was crouched on was wet and crunchy with salt residue where his foot ground against it, and he carefully shifted his weight from one leg to another to avoid making a loud noise. He didn’t want to startle the animals- that would be counterproductive to his efforts, and if he had to come down here any more than necessary then he’d drop out of school before he could finish the damn thing. Dropping out was not an option, though, so fuck him he guessed. He went to tug his notebook back out of his pocket, not noticing his own grip loosening until the camera was already sliding out of his hands, hitting the water with a quiet splash and startling the seal that was closest to him. He watched it sink, the glint of the metal disappearing into the oblivion that was three feet down.

“ _Fuck_.” He grimaced and then put the notebook down on the ground, ignoring the fact that the pages would get a little wet. His lecturer was going to be so pissed at him, for fuck sake. Andrew didn’t exactly have a reputation for being responsible in his school, but he supposed that setting fire to several tables in his second year chemistry modules would do that to a man’s reputation. He rolled his sleeves up roughly and then reached as far into the water as it would allow, but he couldn’t quite see where the object had fallen to go and get it. He supposed that he could have just bitten the bullet and gotten in for it if he had put his mind to it, but Andrew wasn’t about to get his good jeans wet for a stupid hunk of metal. If Aaron or Nicky had been there he would have made them get in for it, but unfortunately he was alone.

He wiped his hands off on his jeans before reaching for his notebook again, looking up just in time to see one of the seals slide into the water with a small splash, leaving the other two to huddle closer together for warmth.

Maybe he’d text Aaron, ask him to bring down another camera. Maybe Aaron would even do it, if he asked. Aaron had a nasty habit of doing things for Andrew’s sake sometimes- Betsy would have told him that it was an attempt to repair the gap that had been created between them by the way they had spent their childhoods, but what did she know? She was only a top class psychologist and a better mother to the both of them than their own had ever bothered to be.

He barely had his phone in his hand when he heard a voice off to the left of him, and he blinked before turning around to see where it had come from. The rest of the cave was empty though, the path that he had taken in clear of anything that could have made a noise like that. He was just about to decide that he had imagined it, when he heard it again.

“Sir? I think you dropped this!”

Andrew frowned, and then turned back to the water before stopping in his tracks. There was a man there- he looked to be around Andrew’s age, but it didn’t make _sense_. There hadn’t been a man there before, there hadn’t been anyone around at all. Where had he come from?

At Andrew’s blank stare, the man’s smile faded to a half-frown. “I saw you drop it, this is yours.”

Andrew opened his mouth, closed it again. “Uh, who the fuck are you?”

The man blinked, and underneath him in the water Andrew swore that he saw something moving, a quick swish under the water every once in a while. He had auburn hair like red that had cooled in the pale spring sunshine to a duller brown, and when the sun caught it it turned to copper. “You can call me Neil if you’d like, I live around here.”

He held up his hand again, using the strap of the camera to dangle the camera from his  long fingers. Andrew stared at his hand for a couple of moments before diverting his attention to the slightly dripping camera. “Did you want this back or not?”

Andrew reached out and took it from the man, before shaking his head a little. “Where did you come from? You weren’t here before.”

Neil frowned, and tilted his head. “I was here the _whole_ time.”

“And you… swam down to get my camera? Why?”

Neil looked at him like he was an idiot. “Because you dropped it? Why, should I have left it there? You _looked_ like you wanted it back.”

“I did want it back, I just-” Andrew groaned, and cut himself off. He wasn’t usually the best at making conversation, but he was never _this_ bad. “Thanks, I guess.”

“No problem. What are you even doing out here?” Neil drew himself closer to the edge of the flat rock Andrew was crouched on, putting his arms on it and resting his chin on the crook there. Then, his grin turned impish. “It’s a little cold for a swim, don’t you think?”

Andrew didn’t really think that that was any of the man’s business (and had half a mind to point out that Neil himself was swimming and he was just fine), but he had always been a sucker for blue eyes. He could hear Renee laughing at him all the way from her apartment- not that Renee had been any better around any of the pretty girls that Andrew had seen her meet across the years. Least of all her wife. He would never say any of that out loud to Renee though, he supposed- she would kill him. “School project.”

“What do you have to do for it?”

“I’m taking pictures of the seals here, monitoring their behaviour. I do marine biology.” Andrew had no idea why he was telling Neil all of this- it probably had more to do with the man’s pretty features and playful tone than he was willing to admit. Maybe Renee was right to laugh at him.

“You’re not going to hurt them, are you?” Neil’s voice took on a slight edge, and Andrew raised an eyebrow at the way that his eyes widened in panic. “You can’t-”

“I’m not going to fucking hurt them Neil, what the hell?” Andrew grabbed his notebook, turned it so that the man could see the information scrawled there. “I’m just studying them, okay? _Research_.”

“Research.” Neil frowned as if he wasn’t familiar with the term. “What about the other things that live here?”

“What? I haven’t seen anything other than seals here.” Andrew frowned. It was true- the area was pretty unremarkable in the ways of other marine life, but the seals seemed to like it there. It was the only reason that Andrew was there, after all.

“You’ve seen me, haven’t you?” The playful tone had returned to the man’s voice, and his bright blue eyes were more alive than Andrew had ever seen the ocean. “Write that in your little notebook.”

“Humans don’t live in the water, last I checked. You hardly live in this little cave with the seals, Neil.”

“Don’t I?” Neil grinned, exposing a mouth full of slightly sharp teeth. “Are you sure about that?”

Andrew didn’t know how to reply to that, so he just shook his head. “I’d tell you to go away, but this is a lot more interesting than seal watching.”

Neil laughed, as if Andrew had just made a joke. “Well if you’re going to be here more often, I might just have to stop by and keep you company while you… scribble.”

Andrew ignored the slight about his handwriting and rolled his eyes. “If you insist, I suppose I could use someone to stop me from falling asleep while I’m here.”

“I can do that.” Andrew watched one of the seals blow air out of their snout and then turned back to Neil when he spoke again. “I should probably leave you to get back to your seal watching for now, though. Goodbye…”

He paused, expecting Andrew to speak then.

“Andrew.” Andrew provided, before mentally cursing himself. He didn’t know this guy, for all he knew the man could be some crazy person camping out on the beach. A very handsome person, but a crazy one nonetheless.

“Andrew.” Neil nodded and then tapped his fingers to his temple in a mock salute, ducking back under the water and turning to swim away. Andrew watched him go, keeping his eyes on him until the water had returned to its usually gentle ebbing and flowing. Not too long after he had disappeared, another seal pulled itself up onto the little island of rock to join the others who were relaxing there- when Andrew looked closer, it seemed that it was the same seal that had left not long before. It had the same markings on its face, its body- Andrew wondered where it had gone, when it had slid into the water.

He gave the water one last scan for a glint of auburn, and then he brought the camera up to his eye again.


End file.
